Vietnam exerts pressure on Google’s YouTube advertisers

22/06/2019
13:32
GMT+7

The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has ordered tens of domestic and foreign brands to not advertise on video clips that contain anti-State propaganda on YouTube, a video-sharing platform.

The Ministry of Information and Communications has ordered tens of domestic and foreign brands to not advertise on video clips that contain anti-State propaganda on YouTube. (Photo: amazeemetrics.com)

The move was made after the authoritydiscovered many prestigious brands have advertised on videos with the illegal andmalicious content via Google Ads. Particularly, video producers get advertisingrevenue sharing from Google, which means the tech giant indirectly funds anti-VietnameseState activities.

According to the MIC, some 8,000 clips with harmful contents shared on YouTube hadbeen removed by Google in recent two years at the request of the MIC.

However, the number of harmful-content clips shared on YouTube is on the rise,it said, reporting that about 55,000 clips which are toxic or violate Vietnam’slaw are being shared on the platform.

ABEI Deputy Head Le Quang Tu Do pointed to Google’s content loose management regime,uncontrolled advertizing activities on the videos and Google Adsense, and allowingusers to buy ads directly from YouTube and Google without involvement ofdomestic advertising agents as causes of the existence of malicious clips onYouTube platform.

The ministry asked YouTube and Google to identify Vietnamese channels, and onlythose which are certified and have proper contents will be considered for adrevenue sharing.

It will work with the State Bank of Vietnam, the General Department of Taxationand the Ministry of Public Security to control the flow of ad revenue, and meteout strict punishment to any violation.

Besides, it has ordered YouTube to remove suggestion mode for violatingchannels, and ban users from republishing the removed clips. Individuals andorganisations are requested to coordinate with the ministry to prevent andremove the channels with inappropriate contents.

Statistics from the ministry showed that Vietnam’s online advertising market isvalued at around 400 million USD, with over 70 percent of the revenue going toFacebook and Google.

Although Google earns some 150 million USD each year from ads in Vietnam, ithas no legal representative offices in the country. Thus, the MIC said that itis necessary for Google and YouTube to open branches or representative officesin Vietnam to provide customer service and work with Vietnamese authoritieswhen needed.

As for social network users, they should be responsible for their comments andsharing of unverified information while correcting false information andopposing to fake news.

The MIC is recommending the Government to complete laws on social networkmanagement and cross-border services.-VNA